Wilderness Watch
“To protect America’s enduring legacy of wilderness.”
The origin
How they started
Wilderness Watch, run out of Missoula since 1989, has one job: holding federal agencies to the 1964 Wilderness Act across the National Wilderness Preservation System. It is a watchdog that goes to court when managers bend the rules. In 2020 it won a ruling that the Forest Service illegally let Idaho land helicopters to collar elk and wolves in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, with the court ordering the illegally gathered data destroyed.
Every year they sign one sentence and file it with the federal government: “WILDERNESS WATCH WORKS TO PROTECT THE WILDERNESS CHARACTER OF THE NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM AND WILD RIVERS AND ENCOURAGE APPRECIATION AND CAREFUL STEWARDSHIP OF THEM.”
Where the money went, FY2024
The work, and what it cost
Keeping wilderness wild
$377KThis program includes our work to protect and preserve Wilderness areas and the integrity of the Wilderness Act.
Read it as they filed it
DEFENDING WILDERNESS: This program includes our work to protect and preserve Wilderness areas and the integrity of the Wilderness Act. It includes providing technical and detailed comments on policies, proposals and projects that affect individual Wildernesses or the National Wilderness Preservation System as a whole. It also includes challenging harmful projects by filing administrative appeals, objections, and litigation. The program also includes providing information to governing bodies, like Congress, on the effects to Wilderness from pending legislation.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2024, signed under penalty of perjury.
Keeping wilderness wild
$322KThis program provides information to our members, supporters, and the general public about issues affecting Wilderness and how to be effective wilderness advocates.
Read it as they filed it
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT: This program provides information to our members, supporters, and the general public about issues affecting Wilderness and how to be effective wilderness advocates. It includes our quarterly newsletter, the Wilderness Watcher, regular action alerts and updates, news releases, educational forums, events, webinars, social media, and presentations to student and community groups.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2024, signed under penalty of perjury.
Follow the dollar
92 cents of every dollar goes to the work
That ratio is a good sign, not a scorecard. Plenty of great groups run leaner and lumpier. What matters is the extremes, and Wilderness Watch is nowhere near one.
$699,262 programs, $28,088 management, $31,387 fundraising. Form 990, FY2024.
The people
Who does the work
Succeeds Mark Peterson in the officer table.
Honesty note: leadership comes from each year’s federal filing, so it can run a year behind. This one caught a changing of the guard in the act: the FY2024 officer table lists Mark Peterson, the return itself is signed by George Nickas. Orgs that claim their page can update it same-day. Work at WW? Claim this page.
Those 10 volunteers are people who decided this ground was theirs to defend. If WW is fighting for your place too, the matchmaker will find your way in.
Make it 11The record
The court record
14 years of filings
Total revenue by fiscal year, as filed. Point at the line for any year.
| Year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2011 | $317,387 |
| 2012 | $905,764 |
| 2013 | $365,034 |
| 2014 | $771,816 |
| 2015 | $463,205 |
| 2016 | $243,615 |
| 2017 | $1,125,494 |
| 2018 | $439,864 |
| 2019 | $668,235 |
| 2020 | $700,248 |
| 2021 | $724,233 |
| 2022 | $535,546 |
| 2023 | $903,809 |
| 2024 | $897,431 |
From $317K in 2011 to $897K in FY24, with no missed filing in 14 years.
Fights alongside Alaska Wilderness League (2 shared cases), Defenders of Wildlife (2 shared cases), Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges (2 shared cases), National Wildlife Refuge Association (2 shared cases) and Sierra Club (2 shared cases) and 6 more. Same case, same side, on the federal docket.
Their ground
The places they defend
See every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.
Ways in
How to help
92 cents of your dollar goes straight to the work above.
Give on their site ↗Show upVolunteer with themFind their volunteer door on their own site.
Find it on their site ↗SpeakComment and callOpen comment windows and call scripts for fights like these, ready to send.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapStand with Wilderness Watch
37 years on the ground, 10 volunteers, 1 live lawsuit, 92 cents of every dollar on the line. That is who is holding it. There is room for one more.